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Green Dragon “Starbucks of Marijuana” expanding to Telluride

Green Dragon has been granted a license to sell recreational cannabis in Telluride. The four existing cannabis stores in Telluride aren’t doing cartwheels of joy.

The “Wal-Mart of weed,” said the manager of one existing store. The “Starbucks of marijuana,” said another of the Denver-based chain. It has 10 stores, including Aspen, Breckenridge and Glenwood Springs.

Green Dragon’s price of $5 a gram undercuts prices of existing stores. It sells only in the recreational sector. Other stores sell to both recreational and medical customers. A competitor argues that those with medical needs will be hurt by this price-cutting.

According to the Telluride Daily Planet, this new twist has some existing cannabis stores calling for new rules to govern marijuana sales. Like Aspen, Telluride has largely treated marijuana stores like liquor stores. There are no limits and there are no special prohibitions about locations, such as restricting them to industrial zones.

Now, there is talk about how many is too many and, for that matter, whether chain cannabis stores should even be allowed.

Green Dragon owners estimate the new Telluride store will produce $8 million to $10 million in gross sales annually.

Town officials in the ski town of Winter Park also aren’t doing cartwheels of joy about a a new marijuana-selling store called Serene Wellness.

About half of Colorado ski towns want nothing to do with marijuana sales, and Winter Park is among them. But Grand County, where Winter Park is located, allows sales. Here’s where it gets tricky: an old motel in the town’s core was never made part of the town when Winter Park was incorporated in 1979.

As such, town officials have no control over what happens there. This is the site of the new operation. The result, says the Sky-Hi News, was a tense relationship between town hall and the county courthouse.

Like the new store in Telluride, the new store in Winter Park will sell only recreational marijuana, meaning there’s no need for a doctor’s prescription.